Now that those USA and Mexico reports are out of the way, I can get back to writing about Chinese powered dragons and jungle mouse coasters.
I’d planned this exact same trip for a year previously, but a typhoon meant that my train between Shenzhen and Guilin was cancelled, which f**ked up the whole thing and I ended up just going home. I had the same situation with work this year - a day of crap after the holidays, then five days free until my next meeting – so just redid/rebooked the exact same thing that went tits up last year.
I had an early morning train from Shenzhen, so just headed there the night before and stayed at a hotel next to the station. I was at my Guilin hotel by around 11am, they let me check in early, and then I was off for creds.
1001 Fairyland
There were two amazing creds to be had here, one of which was going to be my 1,500th. A taxi dropped me at some shopping area, but there were signs for the park. It was glorious.
Cred 1,499:
Cred 1,500 was on the map:
Though not in the actual park. It was supposed to be here:
So, this was the third attempt at 1,500 thwarted. Thanks to a missing Mexican cred and a closed S&S Freefly, I’d just missed out on that trip. Then I found 3 creds in a Mexican travelling fair that had closed the night before I got there. And now this. F**kers!
There was a botanical garden kind of place next to it, so I had a quick look just in case, but no surprise coasters.
Taxi to the next place then:
Seven Star Park
This was a pretty big park not too far from where I was staying, so the plan was to grab the creds and walk back. It was all quite lovely, but I couldn’t find the creds anywhere.
I found a cave though. Clearly, the natural wonder that is a very impressive cave system simply isn’t good enough in tasteful China unless it’s lit up like a Disney dark ride. Fabulous.
More wandering around and I saw some wild monkeys, but no creds.
One far corner looked promising, but no creds.
I hadn’t eaten and was hungry, but, unfortunately, KFG was closed.
I was about to give up, but in a last-ditch effort thought I’d try the park’s zoo. I’d walked past it earlier and not bothered since it was a fairly expensive upcharge, but if there were any creds here, this was the last possible place they could be.
They were less than an hour off closing, and the ticket bint seemed a bit surprised that I wanted to go. They had posters of pandas, but she said, “You know no panda? Now no panda?” One of the surprising things on this trip was that a lot of people had a basic grasp of English. It’s a very tourist-oriented area, but I still wouldn’t have expected someone in a ticket booth of a crappy zoo hidden away inside a park to be able to speak much. She didn’t understand “creds” though, so I just bought the ticket.
Apart from having “no panda” (an empty enclosure where they clearly used to be), they had pretty much no anything. It was really small with nothing to actually look at.
But.
CREDS!!!!!!!
I rode the weird worm thing first since it would be a bit more unique for my 1,500th than a jungle mouse though it was tempting to do that for the s**ts and giggles.
I’d been at Seven Star Park for a good three hours since I’d taken in the cave and wandered around for ages before I thought to look inside the zoo. My hotel wasn’t that far away - probably a 20-minute walk - so I was going to walk back, but just ended up grabbing an Ofo bike instead.
I just chilled out for a couple of hours then went for a wander that evening. The hotel was near one end of busy pedestrian shopping street with a lake at the opposite end with some pagodas and s**t.
Cred whoring and a proper park in the next bit.
I’d planned this exact same trip for a year previously, but a typhoon meant that my train between Shenzhen and Guilin was cancelled, which f**ked up the whole thing and I ended up just going home. I had the same situation with work this year - a day of crap after the holidays, then five days free until my next meeting – so just redid/rebooked the exact same thing that went tits up last year.
I had an early morning train from Shenzhen, so just headed there the night before and stayed at a hotel next to the station. I was at my Guilin hotel by around 11am, they let me check in early, and then I was off for creds.
1001 Fairyland
There were two amazing creds to be had here, one of which was going to be my 1,500th. A taxi dropped me at some shopping area, but there were signs for the park. It was glorious.
Cred 1,499:
Cred 1,500 was on the map:
Though not in the actual park. It was supposed to be here:
So, this was the third attempt at 1,500 thwarted. Thanks to a missing Mexican cred and a closed S&S Freefly, I’d just missed out on that trip. Then I found 3 creds in a Mexican travelling fair that had closed the night before I got there. And now this. F**kers!
There was a botanical garden kind of place next to it, so I had a quick look just in case, but no surprise coasters.
Taxi to the next place then:
Seven Star Park
This was a pretty big park not too far from where I was staying, so the plan was to grab the creds and walk back. It was all quite lovely, but I couldn’t find the creds anywhere.
I found a cave though. Clearly, the natural wonder that is a very impressive cave system simply isn’t good enough in tasteful China unless it’s lit up like a Disney dark ride. Fabulous.
More wandering around and I saw some wild monkeys, but no creds.
One far corner looked promising, but no creds.
I hadn’t eaten and was hungry, but, unfortunately, KFG was closed.
I was about to give up, but in a last-ditch effort thought I’d try the park’s zoo. I’d walked past it earlier and not bothered since it was a fairly expensive upcharge, but if there were any creds here, this was the last possible place they could be.
They were less than an hour off closing, and the ticket bint seemed a bit surprised that I wanted to go. They had posters of pandas, but she said, “You know no panda? Now no panda?” One of the surprising things on this trip was that a lot of people had a basic grasp of English. It’s a very tourist-oriented area, but I still wouldn’t have expected someone in a ticket booth of a crappy zoo hidden away inside a park to be able to speak much. She didn’t understand “creds” though, so I just bought the ticket.
Apart from having “no panda” (an empty enclosure where they clearly used to be), they had pretty much no anything. It was really small with nothing to actually look at.
But.
CREDS!!!!!!!
I rode the weird worm thing first since it would be a bit more unique for my 1,500th than a jungle mouse though it was tempting to do that for the s**ts and giggles.
I’d been at Seven Star Park for a good three hours since I’d taken in the cave and wandered around for ages before I thought to look inside the zoo. My hotel wasn’t that far away - probably a 20-minute walk - so I was going to walk back, but just ended up grabbing an Ofo bike instead.
I just chilled out for a couple of hours then went for a wander that evening. The hotel was near one end of busy pedestrian shopping street with a lake at the opposite end with some pagodas and s**t.
Cred whoring and a proper park in the next bit.